The present invention relates to a ball expelling device adapted to expel a ball under force for various recreational activities. Particularly, the present invention relates to a ball expelling device adapted to pitch baseballs for batting and fielding practice.
Heretofore, ball pitching or throwing devices have been developed wherein a pair of counter-rotating wheels are operative to grip a ball and throw the ball from the machine by interaction between opposed peripheral edges of the rotating wheels. Such machines have been devised, for example, to pitch baseballs for batting practice so that batter may improve his swing. Other machines throw ground balls or flys to fielders to improve their fielding. Thus, these machines are quite useful in that they eliminate the need for a person either to pitch the ball to the batter or to hit the ball to fielders for fielding practice. While these prior devices have been capable of projecting straight balls, curve balls, line drives and ground balls, there has been difficulty in the prior art devices in providing structure which is adjustable to provide a large variety of pitches in a reproduceable manner.
As noted, the prior art devices have contemplated the use of parallel spaced-apart wheels oriented in a common plane with these wheels counter-rotating to grip the ball and expel the ball from the device. Unfortunately, through, many of the known baseball projecting machines have a number of disadvantages. For example, some of these machines are not able to effectively and simply provide a curve ball, and indeed often it is impossible for these machines to be adjusted to vary the velocity of the ball that is expelled from the device. Further disadvantages are found in the difficulty of adjusting these machines to provide different pitches and, when such adjustment is undertaken, the pitches are not reproduced accurately. Also a common disadvantage on these machines is that the ball feed mechanism is internal of the machine so that the batter or fielder has no indication of the moment in which the pitch will be delivered so that the batter or fielder is not able to anticipate the pitch. Naturally, anticipation of the delivery of the ball allows a player to compensate his motion in reacting to the ball.
The structure of these prior art devices which have enabled some degree of adjustment are often quite complicated and bulky. For example, many prior art devices utilize separate variable speed motors to drive each wheel so that the ball is gripped between a pair of surfaces which are not moving at the same velocity. Accordingly, such machines, have difficulty in reproducing an accuracy and delivery of the pitch.
As result of the fact that these machines are bulky, heavy and unstable, they lack ease of portability. In fact, it is often the situation that these machines are permanently affixed at given location so that there is no portability of the device whatsoever. Further, since many of these machines utilize electrical power sources, it is necessary that they be operated at a location where an electric power is conveniently located which location is not always the best for practice situations.
Accordingly, there is a need for a ball expelling device which is fairly inexpensive to manufacture and economically to use so that a large variety of groups may employ such machines for practice situations, while at the same time providing a machine that is lightweight and portable so that it may be used at a variety of locations. Further, there is a need for a machine that eliminated the requirement of a convenient electrical power source and at the same is uncomplicated in structure yet which is durable over a long period of use. Also, there is a need for a machine that is highly adjustable yet provides reproduceable results without the necessary of different drive mechanisms.